Shahzad Younas’s Muslim dating software aided 15,000 couples meet and obtain married. He informs Amelia Heathman about contemporary love
The expression goes: ‘Muslims don’t date, we marry’,” claims Shahzad Younas, creator and CEO for the Muslim matching app Muzmatch. “It’s a phrase that is generalised it strikes the nail regarding the head. If I’m fulfilling a woman, we’re both thinking, is this person wedding material?”
Muzmatch is normally dubbed the Muslim Tinder but Younas isn’t so satisfied with the comparison. It utilizes some typical https://christianmingle.reviews structures that are dating-app such as for instance swipes and likes, but alternatively of centering on casual hook-ups it’s all about helping Muslims find you to definitely marry.
Numerous Muslims are required to marry young also to someone for the exact same faith. Choices include dealing with a matchmaker, which computer science graduate Younas describes as “like getting your CV passed around” to get a proper partner. That he decided to create an app that would make the dating process more “halal” — acceptable in religious law so it was back in 2014, after hearing his friends swap stories about dating struggles.
Younas quit their task as a good investment banker and invested 6 months working 18-hour times to produce Muzmatch in the bed room. Half a year after introducing, the application had produced its very first marriage.
“A couple got in contact to state ‘thank you, we got hitched as a result of your app’. I became like, OK, that is real,” he said. The results talk on their own: Muzmatch has one or more and a half million people plus some 15,000 partners ‘ve got hitched after fulfilling upon it.
It produced title for itself outside of the Muslim community thanks to an advertising campaign that went in the Tube just last year featuring Lionel Richie singing: “Halal, will it be me you’re trying to find?” with regards to competitors, the software ranks greater for packages compared to the other religious-focused matching apps including JSwipe (Jewish) and Salt (Christian), in accordance with analytics business App Annie, so it’s no wonder the major relationship organizations attended knocking.
Younas won’t mention who, but states he has turned them down everytime. “We’re for a mission to transform how Muslims across the world think of marriage, to get married.”
Lots of work gets into making sure Muzmatch is just a space that is safe Muslims to talk and fulfill on line. In 2016, the working platform introduced selfie verification to make sure everybody from the application is who they do say they’ve been. The company features a united group in Bangladesh which, alongside its HQ in Aldgate, manually moderates every profile.
Other privacy features are embedded. Users can request a chaperone show up in conversations in the software, such as for example a member of family, as per an Islamic principle that whenever unmarried gents and ladies chat a party that is third show up. Users also can guarantee they’ve no profile image on the account or details such as their name that is full they could be as private online as you are able to. “It’s about comprehending that Muslims are incredibly diverse and then we don’t desire to force individuals down a specific road. We should function as the space that is safe offer top-level privacy to your users,” says Younas.
Safety is vital for any other reasons. “We get lots of EDL types and Right-wing individuals providing you plenty of abuse — putting up Bin Laden photos and all sorts of that form of stuff,” claims Younas. “The positive thing is they get spotted quickly and removed so we can block those users in a permanent way.” in the upside, Muzmatch has non-Muslims signing up as they are interested in learning the faith, such the man that is 50-plus transformed into Islam after fulfilling somebody in the app. “The peoples tales can be pressing. We’re trying to tread that type of being available but faithful that is equally being our community. It’s a line that is tricky walk down but I think we’ve nailed it.”
Therefore what’s next? The start-up has accomplished profitability by way of its premium paid-for tier however the next phase is to carry on to boost the app and its particular features, and expand the group and its own reach. “Purely for a figures basis, one-fifth around the globe is Muslim,” claims Younas. “On top of this, we estimate there are around 400 million Muslims that are solitary and qualified. We have a look at that, and we’ve not really produced dent.”
The start-up has today announced the close of a big Series A funding round for $7m to help Muzmatch in its mission. Investors included respected Silicon Valley-based accelerator Y Combinator – Younas participated when you look at the programme back 2017 – also as Luxor Capital.
“Shahzad has demonstrably made a thing that individuals want,” states Tim Brady, somebody at Y Combinator. “He is a resourceful creator who happens to be playing their users plus in the procedure is promoting a great solution for the Muslim community, in a fashion that main-stream businesses have actually neglected to do.”
Beyond bringing individuals together, Younas also would like to alter attitudes into the Muslim world in order for marriage is approached in a way that is modern. “My vision is the fact that when Muslims across the world think about engaged and getting married Muzmatch pops into the mind — and it is like an obvious, non-taboo move to make,” he states. “I always think Muslims are five years behind the main-stream, specially when it comes down to tech. Now it’s time to allow them to get up.”
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